


Thunderclouds of Magical Power

by Samky



Series: How to hate the fact of becoming a hero, by Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: All the crew will be here, Also plenty of background relationships, Fantasy-AU, Gabriel is tired of all humanity's shit, Jack will love it at the end I swear, Jesse and Sombra are little shits but they mean good, Learning magic never was so fun!, M/M, Original Character(s), but thankfully Jack is there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 22:36:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11473083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samky/pseuds/Samky
Summary: Being labeled as a threat to your country have its fors and againsts, the bad part is that you are pursued by said country’s army and have to face military enhanced chimeras, but the good part is that you meet a handsome king willing to shelter you and teaches you magic. What could go wrong? Except of course being the focus of attention of entire nations, a dark cult that’s been planning their revenge for thousands of years, beast tribes around the world summoning their false gods to aid them, and let’s not forget the other cult of gods that grants you their blessing to fix all this and make the world a better place.Yeah, the job of a Shepherd looks thrilling, doesn’t it Jack? HEY! JACK MORRISON! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING? THIS IS YOUR STORY, COME BACK IN THIS INSTANT!Anyway, hope you enjoy this weird mix of Tales of Zestiria and Final Fantasy XIV





	Thunderclouds of Magical Power

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Thanks for giving this fic a chance and hope it doesn’t disappoint you!
> 
> First I’d like to add that the world where this fic is set, is a combination of fictional and real places, I’ll add a page glossary for the lore I’d built for the story and to explain certain events, spells, artifacts and a large etc. that might not be able to explain with the flow of the story.  
> And I want to give all my eternal love to my best friends and betas that helped me to correct this whole mess, love you!!!  
> Also the awesome piece fo drawing belongs to the amazing [Life](http://lifewhatisthat.tumblr.com/), you should go check their tumblr cause it's amazing!

Being on the run was tiring, scary, difficult, and definitely exciting in some kind of twisted way. He had a lot of experience in the wild, taking care of himself on his own. Living on a farm didn’t prepare you exactly for this, but dad always made him learn, ‘You never know when you might get lost in a forest’ he always said. This time he willingly lost himself in the forest. Now he could put to test all his skills, and train the ones that were lacking at first, like hunting. It’s not like he is a bad hunter, he is really good with rifles and bows, but better with the former, so he only needed to train his stealth a bit more. And the deer meat in his backpack was proof of his latest improvement.

 

The sudden sound of a branch breaking echoed through the canopy of the trees, snapping his attention back to the road. He quickly drew his sword readying his stance, aetheric energy already gathering in his left hand for a magic spell. After a tense minute, a nearby bush started to shake, he was ready to ‘try’ to fire a downpour of icicles when a small squirrel popped from the bush. It sniffed the air and looked at his astonished expression for a moment, it then proceed to ignore him and closed the distance to a group of seeds on the middle of the road, it took them in his mouth and quickly drew back to the bush. Jack instantly released a sigh, relaxing his grip and his stance as well, feeling the tension abandoning his body, he wiped the sweat from his forehead. He kneeled and placed his hand on the solid earth, releasing a faint pulse of white bluish light from his left hand -since he has already stored that energy- better be sure to cast at least a detecting spell in case there was anything in the woods.

 

Everything remained silent for a few minutes and reluctantly, Jack got up after detecting nothing, the soft breeze rustled the canopies again, this time stirring the hairs on his forehead and giving him goosebumps. Giving the trees around him a final glare, he sheathed his sword and started to walk again.

 

Gazing at the setting sun, he got off the path and ventured into the trees to find a good spot for spending the night, he counted his steps and soon he found a big rock wall. Picking some rocks, he marked the number of steps he took to come here and the direction where the path was left, a small fire spell was enough to set up a comfy campfire and soon he was relaxing against the now warm rock. Detection spells on, he allowed himself some relaxing time without worrying who could be following him, on top of that he should get some rest, but sleep avoided him tonight like the plague. He got his second smaller backpack and picked some reading material, his book ‘Basic Thaumaturgy of The Eight Realms’ was easy to find between all the mess, the page for evoking flames from the hands was still marked. He hoped he could make any improvement with tonight’s session, but tonight seemed a really painful one.

 

He just couldn’t stop thinking about the last days, back to his village. The day his magical affinity manifested was really normal to be honest, he found the fact amazing for a child of his age, and rather than scared or frightened about the situation he found it exciting and cool. He was able to create small animals like butterflies and birds of pure resplendent energy, the very essence of magic, the aether. He decided to keep it as a secret since no one had the same magical abilities as him, he practiced and used it with farm tasks, sneaking into the elder’s houses to read the books about magick and learning something new each day. But there was only so much he could learn by himself, the mere process of condensation and refinement could prove itself dangerous without guidance. He learnt about basic aether methodology in high school, so he was aware of the risk of creating an aetheric disturbance in the middle of his town. He was naive, only thinking of normal uses, farm helping, fixing things, nothing villainous or nefarious, till a few days ago, when he had to stop a group of bandits from assaulting his town. The moment they threatened his mother he didn’t hesitate a second, and evoked a barrage of lightning strikes, killing one of them and leaving the other badly injured.

 

His first time killing someone, he would have delved more in the feeling if it wasn’t for the instant backlash he faced from his father and mother: the rejection shining in his mother's eyes, the disgust in his father's snarl, the combined denial from both of them was clear when he tried to get closer to them. Everything happened absurdly fast, he was cuffed and judged instantly, Mick didn’t hesitate in confessing all the affairs they’d shared behind the barn, alleging that he had been bewitched by Jack’s powers. It felt so surreal, being accused of demonspawn origins, as if he had done anything diabolic in his life besides manipulating the very essence of magic. He knew he wouldn’t be safe there, they would use him after discovering his powers, he had to find a new place to stay. When he escaped from the trial, he ran as fast as he could to the library, there he looked for the history book they had to research in twelfth grade. He had heard of a region that aligned as neutral land and you could request asylum, the Blackwatch region, he quickly made a photo and tore off the page, folding it and keeping it safe in his trouser’s pocket. He was ready to get out from there, when the shining cover of the basic Thaumaturgy book caught his attention, without thinking he blasted the feeble covering shield with an aetheric burst, and took the book with him. Getting from the library to his home wasn’t an easy task, but he managed fairly well, picking his belongings was as hard as he expected. The sting of the events that took place in the trial helped in the emotional aspect, he didn’t risk and left his holopad behind, his mobile had to be enough. Batteries, food, some clothes, a small medkit since he had zero idea of healing magic, and finally his bow just in case he needed it. The sounds of sirens and cars getting close to the farm eased any hesitation he could feel about leaving, he didn’t dare to look back, he got on his bike and began to ride.

 

The feeble hoot of a hidden owl brought him back to reality, he glanced tiredly to the book and the instructions, foreign to him without the proper teaching and guidance.He brushed faintly the drawings and sighing tiredly, he adjusted the hoodie tightly although the fire was ablaze, the night was chill and he could feel it.

 

He lifted his head, gazing to the starlit sky, he smiled softly and evoked a small butterfly of aether, the energy creation flew to the sky, lingering on between the canopies of the trees and finally dissipating in a small cloud of dust. He declared the ‘training’ as finished for tonight, pulling his hoodie over his head, he finally laid on the floor and gazing one last time to the sky he closed his eyes.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Getting up to the sound of sirens was a painful experience at first, especially when his bike broke and he had to travel by foot. Now his mobile was his only warning and unless he got close to the Blackwatch castle soon, his expendable batteries would end quickly, although he had to admit the lack of use for any kind of entertainment or internet activity, extended the expected lifespan of the device fairly longer than expected. So he feared drifting off to sleep unintentionally and losing hours of light, he had to run during the night once and that was an experience he didn’t want to endure again. The forest at night acted fairly different than he was trained to face, and the rise of monsters lately was a danger he didn’t want to risk either. He couldn’t `help letting out a sarcastic laugh, that was another of the accusations brought up to him in his trial, according to his neighbours he was the reason of the recent congregation of different monsters around their small town. Well he didn’t blame them that much, he might be a reason? but directly accusing him of doing it on purpose was blatantly absurd.

 

His chain of thoughts were broken when he heard a weird sound from the road, he focused his sight but saw nothing for a few meters ahead. Just when he was going to attribute it to his yet to wake up brain, a cyclops peeked from the canopy of the woods, he hadn’t noticed Jack yet, looking around with a goofy expression. Jack stiffened unintentionally, the mere sight of that awful grey skin made him cringe, the cyclops carried a bat probably carved from a tree trunk, some metal spikes embedded on the point, covered in dried blood.

 

The cyclop scratched his ass and turning his head slightly to the left as he spotted him, at first the cyclops eyed him as trying to understand what Jack was, till the lightbulb in his head finally lit up and started to run in his direction. Without losing a beat Jack readied his bow, kneeling to get a better stance for the late evading roll, he drew the arrow, feeling his muscles tensing with the cord of the bow.

 

Before he could fire the first arrow a shout surprised him, “watch out!” An icicle popped from the cyclops's skull, completely destroying his face and making his now corpse tumble while he wobbled instead of ran, finally falling his corpse ended up close to Jack. Someone was on top of the icicle that went through the cyclop skull, a man mostly dressed in white. He seemed to be a bit shorter than him, but that was hard to notice since the man was on the icicle. He was thinner than him for sure, he seemed to have an athletic build, the white jacket displayed intricate patterns, some details in red and a few green crystals or at least they look like crystals. Now the most striking feature was the tail of feathers coming from under the Jacket, so long it reached beyond his knees. The man jumped in front of Jack, the feathers waving with the motion, now he could appreciate that he indeed was taller, the man reached his chin and Jack could notice the striking green eyes he displayed, a face with soft angles and dark blonde hair, tied into a loose ponytail that fell over his left shoulder. All his appearance radiated gentleness and friendliness.

 

“Well, that was unexpected, it’s been long since cyclops ventured this far from their territory. Since I don’t want to attract any unwanted attention, especially from cyclops or any other creature, we better be careful.” Before Jack could say anything at all, a group of close bushes started to move, and the soldiers that were hunting him appeared.

 

“Over here, I found him!” A group of shouts started to be heard from the forest. Jack was about to start running when the guy placed his hand on his chest. “Don’t worry Jackie I got this, you don’t need to run anymore.” He stepped in front of him and his gaze focused in the forming group of soldiers, from radiating friendliness he swapped now to anger.

 

“Wait how do you know my-?” the soldiers aiming at them with their guns made him stop and lift his hands, the guy kept standing there not showing any sign of worries over the fact that there were soldiers aiming at them with rifles. “Well well, what we got here? Any reason why a military group from none other than the famous country of ravagers is lurking around Blackwatch territory, and armed to make it worse?” The guy merely opened his arms, gesturing the army of soldiers to answer.

 

“Sir, I’m officer Chris Jensen, we are here to capture Jack Morrison and bring him to justice for the crimes he has committed.” The group split and let a big buffed soldier walk to the front, his hair was really grey while his face seemed too young for it.

 

“Interesting, and why is the army of the United States seizing this poor man?” The officer frowned and clasped his hand behind his back, adopting a firm stance.

 

“That’s classified information and I’m not allowed to share it, now, I ask you to move away or we’ll have to use force against you.” The guy erupted in a burst of laughing, having to cover his mouth as if trying to hide it. The officer frowned even more and gritted his teeth.

 

“Oh my poor soldier, please don’t make me laugh, I’ll just assume that you weren’t properly informed about the situation here, although you might live under a rock or something.” From his right hip, a book detached and slowly lifted itself till it opened and stood there passing pages. The book was outstanding to be honest, two big wings adorned the covers, coming from the spine of the book. The entire surface was decorated with intricate golden patterns, and on top of the spine a glowy blue crystal let an arcane sigil form.

 

“I, Rowland Everflame, Archmage of the Blackwatch Kingdom order you to retreat your army from this forest unless you want to face the consequences.” All the soldiers tensed, Jack did as well, from the little he remember about late politics and his time in high school, this guy was the king’s right hand and advisor regarding magical conflicts.

 

“If you harm us, your country will be treated as an enemy and there will be war.”

 

“You already breached Blackwatch territories without a warning, officer, therefore you are dangerous intruders and the UN won’t have any other option than to accept it as your country’s mistake.” The officer shifted his gaze from Jack to Rowland.

 

_Wait, wait, wait, wait, WAIT A FREAKING MOMENT. We are speaking of Rowland Everflame, Archmage of the Blackwatch kingdom, as in, member of the High Magical Council in Talisya. Oh god if this guy is here this has to be a really bad situation, but what can he do? It was already a nightmare escaping from the army, trying to escape from Rowland was just impossible, but he said he was going to help him, wasn’t he?_

 

“How can I know you are who you say you are? Rowland Everflame. Why would such high rank soldier be sent to pick up a criminal like this kid?” The officer said Roland’s name as if it was pure venom. Rowland sighed and facepalmed himself with resignation.

 

“You, your superiors and your country are quintessentially stupid to be honest, you keep thinking that we are like Switzerland, but you seem to not realize that we ally with the weak and those who can’t defend themselves.” All the soldiers readied their weapons upon the insult.

 

“Are you really insulting all my people in front of me?” Rowland directly chuckled in a mocking way.

 

“Well you made it easy since you were so clever as to bring guns to a magic fight, Protectga!” The blue crystal shone and a thick barrier made of hexagonal crystals enveloped them in a dome like shape. The soldiers quickly fired their weapons, but were effortlessly deflected by the shield. Rowland held the book with his left hand and slipped his right inside the pages, the surface of the pages glowed golden while Rowland's hand was inside, pulling out a rod made of purple metal and decorated at the top with a crystal ball resembling a striking meteor. Not a second from watching it, Jack instantly recognized it.

 

“By Rhalgr’s glory, that’s the-”

 

“The Stardust Rod” finalized officer Jensen while looking at Rowland’s smug expression.

 

“It seems you are not as ignorant after all officer, anyway, you pissed me off so now you’ll have to bear the consequences.” The rod suddenly stood straight, floating by itself, a purple, black and orange smoke enveloped it. The crystall ball at the top glowed pink and yellow, letting small sparkles of yellow light glimmer. Two white rings of runes enveloped the crystal, and with a quick flash the rod became a beacon of light that popped straight to the sky. After reaching a point, the light created a sigil with meteor symbols.

 

“Wait, you can’t be serious!” the soldiers tried to run away but were lifted in the air by some magic Rowland used without needing to use a voice command or sigil, driven by the desperation of the situation some soldiers kept shooting them, but it was in vain. Rowland raised his hands to the sky and the sigil glowed with force.

 

“Oh great Destroyer, I beseech you to heed my call, for I claim these ignorants as yours to witness the force of your mighty strength, Star Sign: Meteor!” From the middle of the sigil, the tip of a giant rock started to pop, slowly descending till it covered the entire of the inner circle in the sigil, now faster the meteor dropped, the air around it setting ablaze and the ground beneath it shaking strongly as it got closer. Jack’s first instinct was to escape, to run away before he got in the radius of the impact, he had to! But he found himself bewildered at witnessing the fall of a meteor, and he was too close already to try to get away. So he stood there, watching how the giant flaming ball of rage and stone strikes the surface, and engulfed everything in a white flash. A hard shove on his right shoulder made him open his eyes, Rowland was there smiling like nothing happened. The soldiers were all scattered on the ground, screaming and crawling in different directions, he looked back at Rowland without understanding.

 

“It all was an Illusion so we can escape now, I could summon an actual meteor and kill them, but I don’t want to deal with the UN and the High council. Now let’s go, we got a long way ahead till the castle.” Rowland threw the Stardust Rod to the air and it fell into the book which was stationed right below to catch it, the book flew quickly to his right side where attached by magic at his waist. Jack then noticed that he was slightly gaping and ran to the archmage’s side.

 

“That was awesome dude! How did you do it? Can I do it too? Wait will I be able to do it? That’s the real Stardust Rod right? Is it true that you made if from a real meteor core?” Rowland chuckled lightly while looking at Jack’s enthusiastic look, he could swear that he even saw a glitter in them. He lifted his left hand and pointed a finger for each answered question. “Let’s answer in order: Illusion magic is actually really easy to build when you already have a planned set up of what you want to build, like a blueprint. Of course you can do it, the Illusion at least, you’ll need more time to be able to use high level magic like Meteor, so work hard and surely you’ll be able to use it and also others of equal strength!” Rowland smiled confidentially, making Jack to think about it for a moment, he imagined himself casting such powerful magic and he couldn’t avoid to actually want to try it someday, besides he could add it in his resume.

 

Rowland opened the book again, the Stardust Rod popped out and fell on his hand and handed it for Jack to take it. He was unsure, but Rowland was quick to urge him and add that it would be fine as long as he was careful. “Regarding your two other questions, yes it is and yes, I called the meteor myself after practicing the spell and I decided to use it’s core to make the rod, well I didn’t make it but I have a friend that’s incredibly talented with magical craftsmanship.” Jack was sure he was grinning like an idiot while he listened what Rowland was saying and inspecting the rod at the same time, he’d always wanted to hold a rod or staff, they are really important weapons for mages even in these times, they had to get used to their weapon of choice and learn to balance their power with it. The rod felt actually heavy in his hands, how was Rowland able to wield it so effortlessly? He noticed the immense power emanating from the crystall ball, leaving a tingling feeling in his body.

 

“You can feel the meteor’s core power right? You shouldn’t hold it much longer though, I don’t want your soul to have problems because of too much condensed power.” The rod suddenly stiffened and went back to the book in a quick move, leaving Jack astonished.

 

“Well let’s go already, the soldiers won’t be much more in the illusion, and I don’t feel like abusing lost lambs today.” Jack quickly went to his side.

 

“Wait, you came here to scort me to the castle right? I wanted to thank you for your efforts, it’s nice to know that I have the support of the Blackwatch king.” The archmage opened the book, and a big holographic map displayed their position and the route to reach the Blackwatch castle, Jack felt proud that he hadn’t gotten lost once from the way to the castle.

 

“Actually the king doesn’t know about any of this yet, it was all my doing” said Rowland like as if it was the most normal thing to do.

 

“What? Your kingdom might be targeted by the strongest nations in all world and you decided to act without considering your king’s thoughts?”

 

“Well, Gabe was having his siesta when The Shadows told us about your situation, and he would murder me if I woke him in the middle of it, besides I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to help you, if not… Well let’s say I know how to make him change his mind.” Jack could feel a sinister feeling emanating from Rowland and made a mental note to not make an enemy of him.

 

“Gabe as in king Gabriel Reyes?” asked Jack confused.

 

“Uh- yeah the very same, sorry I’m used to calling him Gabe.” Jack smiled and Rowland smiled back, the travel lightened a lot when they started to chat, Rowland knew the area perfectly, so they shortened the distance a bit, adding to it that Rowland asked the reason of his departure from his home, the travel felt even shorter. It surprised him that the Archmage knew some facts of his situation, alleging that it’s not the first time that something similar happens, so he knew how to act already. Apparently it’s not the first time the UN or other countries go crazy when someone with special capabilities manifests, so he would have to travel to the High Council to prepare for the UN onslaught since they will declare themselves as his official shelter.

 

Rowland told him that he was lucky to end close to his position after a risky random teleportation, the system was being fixed around the kingdom so they couldn’t come back and hence why Rowland decided to risk to arrive asap first. Jack didn’t mind at all sleeping in the woods another night, this adventure of sorts felt actually exciting and kind of relaxing, if you take out the chasing and the encounters of course.

 

Settling for the night was immensely easier with Rowland here, he used a stronger variation of his spell to create a blue campfire with the flick of his fingers. The barriers felt a thousand times stronger and quickly Jack found himself relaxed and secure, making the task of cooking the deer meat for dinner far more enjoyable.

 

Right after finishing the deployment of the barriers, Rowland sat opposite to Jack, watching him how he managed the ingredients and cooked them. “Well Jack, why don’t you tell me what knowledge you have about magic so far?” Jack eyed him, he had sat on a rock, arms supported on his knees and his head on his hands, looking at him expectantly. Jack brushed the back of his neck.

 

“Well, it depends on the subject, I’d say I know quite a lot in the theory aspect since I studied a magic book I found in the library plenty of times for the last fifteen years, but in the practical aspect… Let’s say I’m not that versed.” He smiled shyly, but Rowland merely looked at him inquisitively.

 

“Can I see the book?”

 

“Uh- yeah sure, gimme a moment.” He finished the dinner preparations quickly so the fire would cook the meat, then he proceeded to search for the book in his bag.

 

“I found it one day when I was searching for a good magic book in the library after finding out about my powers, it seems to be old as fuck but I heard some people talking about it with high regard, never asked about it though since I didn’t want to raise suspicions.” He sighed tiredly while handing the book to the Archmage, who eyed it a second and instantly smiled.

 

“I wish I could understand more of what is said there tbh, I really wanted to study magic, but had to go to military, there I wasn’t allowed either since apparently my capabilities weren’t too promising. When I got a weird test result in a medical test, I had to leave it, but then the incident happened and here I am.” He felt something hit his head lightly, to find it was a now destroyed snowball, he looked at Rowland who smiled playfully.

 

“Basic Thaumaturgy of the Eight Major Realms, I remember when I wrote this book.”

 

“Wait what?!” Jack stopped right where he was gaping at Rowland, that book was fucking old.

 

“I wrote it back in the days when Ash Talasya existed, I was such a young Seraph.”

 

“Wait! Wait wait wait, here wikipedia says the book is nearly two thousand years old, I know you are old but how much exactly?” Rowland lifted his gaze from the book and looked thoughtfully to Jack. “Two thousand and sixty six years, sixty seven in nine months. Oh! I remember when I wrote this part, it was really exciting testing the different reactions each element would display between them.” Jack knew he was still gaping but fuck it honestly, it was so amazing to meet an old Seraph, the ages of most figures in the High Council were classified for some reason.

 

“Found it! Look you can read my Celestial name in the book!” Rowland pointed out the place for Jack to read it.

 

“Rozan Ev Arch Zalasa, does it mean something or is just a normal name? Aren’t celestials afraid of giving their true name? I heard it’s something risky and dangerous for the celestial in question.” The Archmage chuckled again while reading more of the book, which now was floating.

 

“It’s my old charge in the Ash Talasya army, and not at all. I learned a long time ago to counter  any kind of magic that could make an advantage from knowing my  true name.” He picked some of the deer meat from the stick and sighed with contentment. “You are an awesome cooker Jack, I give it a solid ten.” Jack felt a small flush built on his face, it’s the first time someone commented so positively about his cooking skills.

 

“Thank you, it’s my second passion after magic, but I do prefer to make sweet things.”

 

“Gabe will love that, he has such a sweet tooth, but don’t tell him I told you, I’d like to keep my head.” Rowland put a hand close to his mouth as if Gabriel could hear them.

 

“I don’t think the king himself will ask me to bake something for him.” He smiled while scratching his neck.

 

“I can tell you he will, the smug bastard surely will change sweets for magic lessons when he teaches you.” Rowland stated as he threw the stick to the woods behind them, he meanwhile choked on his meat and nearly died if not for the water Rowland handed while laughing.

 

“THE KING?”

 

“The very same,” said the archmage still laughing. “By the way, don’t call him king or anything related with it, he actually hates that stuff so things like “Sir” will be more than enough.” Jack nodded and finished his dinner.

 

“I won’t lie though, it’s mainly because you are a shepherd and will need plenty of training and teaching, also since I’m not that good at teaching some things since they are practically something natural to me, there will be other people who will teach you.” Trained by the elite of the blackwatch kingdom was a unique experience that Jack was sure never in history was offered publicly.

 

Rowland made the book to turn back to the first page with a wave of his hand. “I’ll ask you some questions to know a bit more of your capabilities.” Jack scratched the back of his neck again, it made him feel awkward having to say how little he knew about magic.

 

“I can’t say very much to be honest” he said shyly.

 

“There is no need to be shy or feel embarrassed dear, you had to learn on your own and wasn’t given proper magic education, but fear not! For I, will teach you the basics and more with time.” Rowland leaned on his knees, using his hand to rest his chin and looked expectantly to Jack, who brushed the back of his neck again.

 

“Well, I’ve tried some barriers and defensive spells, but they are really basic and I guess that troop of soldiers didn’t find me cause they weren’t versed in magic as well.” He took a small pause to think of more shit he has tried for the last years, Rowland merely kept staring at him while nodding every now and then to assure him he was listening. “A few lightning spells as well, it’s the one I used to stop those guys at my hometown, but the best stuff I’ve been able to do are small animals of Aether.” He put his hands together over his lap, a faint blue glow seeped from his laced fingers, he finally opened them to show a glowing blue butterfly, the butterfly fluttered its wings and flew to Jack’s index finger.

 

Rowland gasped astonished. “Aetherial Materialization, that’s impressive Jack!” Rowland lifted his arms excited, startling Jack for a moment.

 

“Wait, it really is? I think I can make them better though…”

 

“Of course it is! This is a really advanced control of mana amplification, mana condensation and requires lot of concentration to give it stability.” The butterfly flew to stand on Rowland’s nose, the archmage lifted his hand for the butterfly to stand on it.

 

“This is pure Aether Jack, you are controlling pure energy to your will and that’s something incredibly hard even for expert mages.” Jack smiled in a combination of shyness and proudness, since he had to hide his true powers the only time he showed them he only saw rejection and a desire to weaponize him, hearing compliments for the few things he managed to do right was a new pleasant experience.

 

“Thanks, it’s something I’ve always thought was simple, since I’ve been doing it since I was a kid.”

 

“You should feel proud of yourself, controlling and shaping pure Aether isn’t precisely simple.” He noticed the big grin that formed on his face, he couldn’t stop it now. Rowland hovered his other hand over the butterfly, a faint sound could be heard and the butterfly flew to the field of Moonlight flowers that surrounded them.

 

“It’s a really solid construct, it’s only flaw would be that you didn’t made it unhackable.” Jack perked his head up surprised by the comment.

 

“It can be hacked?”

 

“Of course, it’s how I made it fly to the flowers, now look at this.” Rowland held his hand in the air, fixing his gaze on the flower field and suddenly one by one, all the flowers started to glow in a blue faint light. The archmage raised his hand  and an immense group of butterflies flew up in Moon’s direction, making the sky glitter with hundreds of blue dots, then all of them dispersed in a rain of blue aetherial dust, making the flower field to now glow strongly and made Jack’s face shift to astonishment in a moment.

 

“How did you do that?” Rowland smiled upon Jack’s excitement.

 

“Since you made your aetheric pulse easy to read in your butterfly, I overruled it with mine to take control and make it copy itself for each flower in the field, then I released some of the stored aether to attune to the one present in the flowers and make them glow.” Jack kept gazing at the flowers beauty, it was mesmerizing to see them glow and dance in the soft wind.

 

“You know the story of the Moonlight flower?” Jack shook his head, Rowland settled himself closer to the fire and readied to start the story.

 

“It all started a really long time ago, at the starting time the Celestials and Humans lived in harmony.” Rowland moved his hands and a glow formed on the fire, a mass started to take form and a small vision took shape and mirrored Rowland’s words like if it was a movie.

 

“The Goddess of War, Halone The Fury, valkyrie of the Icelands and one of the greatest warrior ever known, was battling against the Lananta army, the winged serpents from the Icelands.” The glow shifted to depict a warrior of strong beauty, wearing an armor of lustrous metal and thick black leather. A helmet left only his piercing blue gaze to see, while keeping her curly blonde hair to her back, for her shoulder a great cape with the sign of a bronze shield with three spears flapped at the cold ice air gracefully. Finally an army of soldiers made of ice waited behind her, who roared to battle getting ready her shield and mighty spear.

 

“She fought untiringly against the Lananta army, to finally find the nest where the queen Echidna was getting ready to infest all the Icelands with her venomous tar to give birth to her prole.” The ‘animation’ showed Halone blocking the strikes of the mad queen who was armed with two giant sickles.

 

“With a desperate move, Halone finally struck the queen’s heart thus bringing her life to an end, but right before, Echidna cursed Halone to die from loneliness as the warrior she claimed to be, unless she could find someone that could love her with eternal devotion.”

 

“Halone has always been devoted to war, not giving importance to banal things such love, friendship or any kind of social practice, her duty was to protect the weak and erase the evils that haunted them. So she seeked for the Auroral Lake, there she would die between the pristine waters and froze to become the Ice she had commanded for centuries.” The image became bigger now, showing the beautiful lake surrounded by snow, and a weakened Halone now bearing a black infection on part of her body.

 

“Halone let herself float over the waters, the Moon shining to it’s brightest and filling the place with an eerie light. From the same Moon a platinum moonbeam rained over Halone, soothing her pain with calming cold and making her to cover her eyes.” A woman of striking  beauty descended slowly from the heavens, dressed in a flamboyant floaty dress of different shades of blue and silver silk. Her platinum hair floated as well, shinning as the most lustrous and soft silk, her eyes of an icy blue, looked affectionately at Halone who was instantly smitten.

 

“Menphina The Lover, goddess of love and ruler of the Moon, had to come down from her lunar palace to save Halone’s life with her unconfessed love.” Menphina floated over the water, leaning to cradle Halone’s face with her hands and joining their forehead together. Menphina kissed the goddess of war lightly and a calm vortex of water enveloped them, erasing the curse from Halone’s body and soul and healing her wounds.

 

“Halone fell instantly in love, but the goddesses couldn’t share too much time together, for Menphina’s home was in the moon and Halone didn’t claim a place for herself after being a wandering warrior all her life. Halone asked her lover to rain their lake with moonbeams that froze water, the Fury used her lance to carve the ice and build an ice palace for them to live in. As another gift, Halone made a blue flower form thin Aether that bloomed at night, Menphina blessed it so it would glow at the full moon, healing slowly wounds and giving strength to those who were weak, people named it the Moonlight Warden.”

 

The animation ended, Rowland brushed a close moonlight flower, which glowed intensely for a moment and emitted a faint bluish dust.

 

“How did you know about this? Someone told you? Or did you read it in some ancient book?” he asked to break the silence that fell after the story.

 

“Halone herself told me” said the archmage with an amused smile.

 

“WAIT WHAT? YOU MET A GODDESS? WAIT, ARE THEY REAL?” Rowland looked even more amused.

 

“Of course they are, once the war between celestials and humans began due to the spread of corruption, they were quick to leave this plane. They probably went back to the Aetherial Sea, I’ll tell you about it another day.” With a wave of his hand, a group of big leafs appeared and made a place to lean on, appeared next to the archmage.

 

“Spells and magic that draw their force from the gods like meteor still works, what makes me think that they are not fully gone as people think, you are a proof of it as well since you were chosen by them.”

 

“But I never believed in the gods, I always thought they were just to scare us when we were younger and all that.”

 

“Well I can assure you they are very real, and the sooner you start believing them the better, they still answer to those who have faith in them. But enough of dwelling in the past, tomorrow will be a long day and we better go to bed.” He took off his jacket and placed it as a pillow, Jack noticed how the same black wing pattern was present on his red shirt.

 

“I’ve been wondering about this rowland, and you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to but…” the archmage had laid already on his leaf made bed and looked expectantly at him.

 

“Your rank is a Seraph, so, shouldn’t you have wings?” of all the possible reactions, he didn’t expect him to smile.

 

“I did have them, but had to sacrifice  them to save someone.” He didn’t ask for more although Rowland kept talking anyway.

 

“It’s funny cause people think they are a big deal, but to be honest most of the times the where a nuisance, only used for flight and denote rank, but you can fly with magic so…” Jack shifted in his sleeping bag to look at the archmage, with a flick of his hand the camp fire was gone and the stars shone bright on the sky.

 

“I remember how a pain in the ass they were for things like clothes and sitting, but I have to admit that the tail is cool, super soft to lean on and comfy, anyway, time to sleep Jack.” Jack gave him a good night and settled in his sleeping bag. He remembered seeing the Blackwatch king in some interviews, but he was an elusive figure, and a handsome one if he remembered well.

 

That night, Jack dreamt about elder gods from times past and a king with hazel eyes.

 

* * *

 

 

He woke up at the incessant shaking of his shoulder, Rowland was tense, with his gaze fixed on something ahead of their position. “Jack gather your things slowly and don’t panic.” He followed his look and saw four gore-chimeras lurking around the protective barriers. Rowland had already evoked the Stardust Rod, which was floating close to him.

 

“When I give you the sign, you’ll run behind us and won’t stop till you see a giant blue tree or you find someone with the Blackwatch emblem.”

 

The chimeras struck the barrier with their bodies but it remained still, he didn’t dare to look at them until he finished picking up his things. Thankfully the sleeping bag didn’t offer too much resistance. Just as he got up one of the chimeras jumped over them, the black lion body highlighting the golden mane. Their yellow eyes leered with a mighty need of death and hunger, on their backs the heads of a blue goat and a purple dragon were readying magic spells to destroy the barrier, their scorpion wings were lowered and the bat wings folded, waiting for their extra heads to bring the barrier down.

 

“Get ready Jack here they come” The goat heads evoked spiked balls of ice while the dragon ones made lightning fall from the sky, the dome shattered in thousands pieces of crystallized aether. “Phalanx!” A wave of his hand made all pieces gather above them and form seven runic blades, they flew fast and struck the chimera that was falling, impaling it and throwing the corpse in front of the others who ignored it and advanced against them.

 

Rowland gathered blinding light, making a small ball in his hands, “Holy!” he threw it forward and the ball exploded in a massive downpour of bluish energy, that made the sound of broken glass. The chimeras remained on their place for a few seconds, “I stunned them but it won’t last too much, now is your chance, run!”

 

He hesitated, doubting if it was a good idea, but Rowland was quick at following his thoughts and threw him with force, landing at the border where the forest started. “Run where I told you Jack!” before he could react, a giant circle of sky blue light appeared covering the entire field and beyond. “From the Ice Lands I beseech thee to hear my plea, freeze your pure waters and halt thine enemies, Wall of Talasya!” The circle shone, from it erupted a gigantic wall of ice that split the field in two, leaving him out of the battle. He stood there a few seconds, noticing how the immense wall had freezed everything in it’s path.

 

Hesitantly he turned and started to run, the low branches slashed his cheeks or arms every now and then, he felt his heart beating fast, not for the run but for the realization that Rowland was fighting three mutated chimeras by himself. Wait! They were mutated, he hadn’t thought about it till now, he stumbled on a root and had to slow down before he fell to the ground, he steadied his pace and felt how the brush started to mess with his feet. Mutated chimeras were an investment that only rich countries were able to afford, sending a group of those in a territory like this was a clear sign of war.

 

A loud crash made him stumble again, this time making him fall and roll over his right shoulder. The echoes of thunderous roars reverberated between the trees, he straightened instantly, ignoring the sharp pain from his shoulder. He frantically looked for the source of the roars, but the everything remained silent except for his hard breath. It couldn’t be that the chimeras won against Rowland right? He readied his bow while taking cover behind a tree when the sound of a broken branch echoed, making him stop, blood frozen and muscles tense.

 

As quick as he could with the sudden rise of excitement, his hand gathered aetheric energy and released a faint pulse. He waited calmly -or as calmly as one could be when chased by chimeras- to see if the spell detected anything dangerous. The spell was designed after echolocation, so if the barrier hit anything it would make a ‘sound’ in his brain. Nothing weird for now, a few small animals, the usual birds of a forest and… Red, red, red, RED.

 

His body surged instantly and stood completely petrified by fear, the few times he had used the spell, he had seen red marked individuals as dangerous, but this things were a complete next level, taking into account the incessant sounds of warning the spell was pounding into his brain. Another loud crash was heard, this time the sound of a tree falling, it broke Jack out of his frightened state. He breathed long and heavy, another roar getting closer, he reached for one of his arrows to find a note: ‘I took the liberty of enchanting your arrows with a few nice effects, be sure to stay at a distance when using the dark red one!!! :P’.

 

The next roar got Jack back to the real world for second time, drawing an arrow that had written ‘Ensnare’ in glowing green letters. The stomping of the creature’s run got closer till it tackled the tree where Jack was hiding. He rolled quickly on his shoulder and pulled the string with determination, firing the arrow to the feet of the chimera. The arrow shone and became a mess of runic chains that kept the beast unable to move.

 

With the beast like that, Jack noticed it was quite different from the ones Rowland held off or, at least, was still battling and hopefully winning against. The main differences were the blue mane and the great amount of ‘faces’ on the beast skin, they looked like this theater masks that were used to show motions, but they all remained with a neutral expression. The beast looked at him with fury in it’s yellow eyes and roared, all the faces snapped their mouth open and made the most horrible and disgusting noise he had ever heard.

 

Jack fell to his knees, feeling how his insides felt torn upside down, his vision started to split in three shaking images and he noted how faint slivers of blood emanated from the orifices in his head. He fell to his right side and curled in pain as the chimera kept screaming, he noticed how the arrows laid scattered in front of him, he picked the orange one, this one displayed ‘Barrage’ in the arcane font.

 

With a surge of forced strength he rose and pulled the arrow ready, the faces increased the intensity of the song making Jack lose his grab on the bow and releasing the arrow up. The arrow shone and quickly vanished in the air, several circles formed with an orange and black pattern, another set of circles formed below the first ones and a group of orange magical arrows with flames materialized in the inner circles. The arrows fired themselves after two seconds, and flew around the chimera who was astonished because of the sudden magick.

 

The flaming arrows pierced through the chimeras skin, silencing the faces at once and making the aberration to howl in pain, a final arrow fell straight from the sky and perforated the monster’s head, killing it instantly. When he got up the images started to blend slowly, everything kept shaking for a few moments but it was starting to at least shake in a recognizable image, he wanted to throw up, his cold hands felt suddenly as if they were burning against his face.

 

Everything was a mess, his face felt like molten lava, his hands were frozen, his stomach twisted in one direction to then revert in the opposite one. That song felt like a death song in all the possible ways, a few more seconds and he would have pulled out his own ears, which were bleeding as was his nose. With the coordination of a drunk elephant he tried to take his first aid supplies from his backpack, at least to clean the ears and patch his nose.

 

Just after cleaning his wounds -as he was getting up- he heard the loud thump of a heavy landing, a few meters affar a new chimera rose from it’s landing crater. This one had the upper body -or at least that was what her dress let to the view- of a young woman, she was extremely pretty as well as creepy Jack saw when she faced to look at him. Her face was all covered in black strikes that scattered all over her body, her glowing green eyes along the black sclera added a terrifying look.

 

She seemed to evaluate him, she finally opened her voice, he didn’t think chimeras were able to speak, although this was a human body fused with a chimera. The lady shouted in his direction, he was thankful for his fast reaction time that day, cause he rolled to his left just in time to avoid the devastating sound wave, that tore apart the very same place where he was.

 

The woman snarled with annoyance and the chimera ran in his direction, he quickly searched for the arrow that had the word ‘Flashbang’ written in dark blue letters, and with pinpoint accuracy it exploded in the perfect angle to blind the beast and the lady, who bellowed in rage and started to ‘spit’ sonic waves from her mouth.

 

Jack didn’t waste time, he hung the bow over his left shoulder and jogged like a mad man, he heard the sonic waves darting wildly around him, but even with all the mess around him he was able to detect the sound of a nearby stream. His reaction was again on point to avoid another wave from the _ladymera_ , quick as a bullet he followed the feeble sound of the water rushing through rocks and reached a cliff that had the river just below.

 

He had to think something quick, and thanks to the twelve he knew exactly what to do, he had to thank Rowland later for making him to believe in the gods again. He took the arrows that had written ‘Portal’ in orange with a blue outline and otherwise, he stuck it to the ground below him, not wasting a second he took the arrow that had ‘Explosion’ written in Red letters with an orange outline and grabbed it with his teeth, then the other portal arrow was shot on the trunk of a close tree opening the path between both places.

 

He waited patiently till the _ladymera_ appeared between the woods, he drew the explosion arrow as he pointed to the ground, the lady readied her sonic blast when Jack shot the arrow, it warped and appeared in the other portal, but the lady twisted as if she didn’t have a freaking cervical spine and shot the wave to the arrow. The explosion that followed threw the chimera against Jack, the part of the cliff breaking and crumbling down to the river below, he readied himself for the water splash.

 

The water was a freezing hell and he had to fight a middle current by grabbing at rocks and swimming with his chest up, he crawled to the shore just in time to see the chimera struggling with swimming in his direction. With his last strength he took another explosion arrow and fired right up the chimera, the cliff’s crumble crushed it with a sonorous sound of bones breaking, now allowing himself to relax, Jack saw how the corpse floated away.

 

He let his body fall to the ground, feeling how the rocks’ pressure felt so good against his numbed muscles, from his waist down he could feel how the water tickled his legs. He took a moment to think about what just happened, and burst out into laughter. He was so fucking tired, exhausted, utterly wrecked from explosions, wild runs and hellish sounds, but he was alive. He couldn’t avoid laughing at Death’s plan to kill him, he fucking survived those genetic abominations.

 

But sadly for him, the party wouldn’t last too much, he froze right there after hearing three low growls. He turned to see how three chimeras come out from the woods in front of the shore. His brain demanded the creation of a quick plan, search for another flashbang? or better go back to water and swim away, maybe using another explosive arrow? But his body was out of will, his brain kept screaming and his body merely shut those thoughts down.

 

Right when he was going to give up, a cloud of black smoke fell from the sky and made a vortex of darkness in front of him, from the very same vortex a sweet and alluring caramel voice made his mind focus.

 

“¡Ey gatitos! ¿Os apetece bailar?” The three chimeras roared at once and jumped against the figure of someone robed in a purple attire with beautiful feathers, Jack heard how the mysterious person chuckled and raised his hand. “I suppose that’s a yes, bailemos pues. Faith Unmoving!” From his hand a strong shock wave threw the chimeras flying several meters into the woods.

 

“Are you okay there kid?” Jack raised his eyes to meet the most handsome face he had ever seen, the man kneeled in front of him was practically stunning, Jack noticed that he was asking him something after staring at that perfect goatee for several seconds.

 

“Sorry what was that?” The handsome stranger chuckled again and repeated his question, at the same time he used his index finger to tap his head three times.

 

“I asked you if that pretty head of yours got damaged kid.” Jack instantly frowned and lifted to his eye level while grabbing his hand in the process. “I’m fine thank you, and my pretty face is even better Mr.’I can tap whoever’s head I want’” The stranger furrowed his brows for a moment, to then burst into laughter the next.

 

“You are a bold one I’ll give you that, and it’s good to know your pretty face is good although I asked about your head in general.” Said the stranger with a smug smile, Jack noted how his face blushed while he stuttered confused, the stranger burst into laughter again.

 

“Thanks for your help anyway, I don’t know what I would have done against three chimeras at the same time.”

 

“No problem kid, was just doing my job.” The stranger shrugged and got up to then lend his hand to Jack.

 

“I’m not a kid you ass, so stop addressing me as one, my name is Jack, are you some kind of forest ranger or a guardian of this area?” he took his hand and got lifted as if he weighed nothing at all, this guy was strong, he looked at Jack not expecting that ask at all and smirked.

 

“Gabriel Reyes at your service, former king of the Blackwatch kingdom, it could be said that yeah, I’m the guardian of these lands” said bowing dramatically.

 

Jack lifted his hand and pointed at Gabriel while gaping slightly.

 

“You… are the king of this country, as in the king king right?”

 

“Yep” said Gabriel while crossing his arms and adopting a total relaxed pose.

 

“The ruler, so the one who decides how things are done”

 

“Exactly”

 

“A king who owns a big castle and surely has plenty of subordinates, one of them being an Archmage who is the head of the Talisyan magic council.”

 

“You seem to know pretty well what being a king is kid.” Jack’s eyebrow twitched instantly as he frowned.

 

“I told you to not call me a kid” he narrowed the distance between them and could feel the king’s breath exhaling from his mouth, which still had the smug expression.

 

“Sorry but to me you look like one.” said plainly while shrugging again with his eyes closed. Jack gritted his teeth and forced all his being to not punch the king in the face. Gabriel was fucking handsome with those strong features on his face, the scars gave his face a fierce look but his eyes contrasted with that gentle brown. Okay Jack focus, we hate this guy, we don’t want to bang him… yet.

 

Jack shook his head strongly, hoping those inadequate thoughts would go. Gabriel looked at him curiously but Jack didn’t know what to say.

 

“Everything okay pretty kid?”

 

“You damn moro-!” before he could say anything else three spiked balls of ice came from the woods, Jack felt how Gabriel yanked him from his hoodie and threw them to a side avoiding the balls.

 

“Stay behind kid.” Jack got quickly to his knees and directed his furious gaze to the king, harsh comeback ready, but he stopped. Gabriel’s look showed pure determination and didn’t blink when the three chimeras from before charged from the forest.

 

“I’ll protect you, that’s something I promise you wholeheartedly.” Jack gasped softly in astonishment. Gabriel lifted his hand and a vortex of darkness formed on the ground under the hand.

 

“Tyrfing I summon thee!” from the vortex of shadows a sword emerged, pommel of black steel and blue jewels, the grip started black as well but slowly became silver and ended in a gold adornment. The guard exhibited an intricate symmetrical pattern of platinum with a blue jewel in the middle and another in each side, part of the guard pattern continued at the low end of the blade with a yellow jewel, the blade was of black steel till the middle where it changed to a pure white one.

 

“Void Resonance!” Gabriel kneeled and at the same timel stabbed a small vortex of smoke like darkness that formed on the ground, the vortex squeezed around the rain guard of Tyrfing and became a purple orb.  The orb pulsed once and then broke, releasing a horrible noise that stopped the chimeras dead in their tracks. The vortex opened again around the sword, three tendrils emerged and tangled the beasts.

 

Gabriel lifted his left hand and moved it in a circle, conjuring a ribbon of words to glowing life.

 

“Enochian!” a fiery aura engulfed Gabriel, his irises changed to crimson red and the sclera became completely black. Several patterns with different runes appeared on his cloak, the feathers from the edge glowing strongly in purple. He got up and placed his hands together, a small pool of aether taking the shape of a ball.

 

“Astral sign: Firaja!” the ball dissipated, but around one of the chimeras a set of small flames formed a circle, from inside the circle an ethereal hiss could be heard and in the blink of an eye a giant explosion consumed the beast, which howled in pain and let it’s corpse collapse.

 

The other chimeras tried to move but the shadow tendrils were strong, Gabriel used Tyrfing to propel himself and jumped making an air flip, in the air he waved his hands and several runic swords of intense blue glow formed.

 

“Ice Barrage!” below one of the chimeras, six ice crystals formed and impaled the beast, the crystals grew from the inside, creating a crystalline formation of ice that was coated in the beast’s blood. The final one freed itself from the shadow tendrils, jumping to catch Gabriel in mid air, the runic blades moved swiftly and slashed the monster with a torrent of cuts. One sliced the goat head with a clean move, blood splattered from the cut and the head of the goat fell heavily to the ground, making noises that were drowned by it’s own blood.

 

Gabriel landed perfectly and with a dramatic turn, he bowed in front of Jack who rolled his eyes and clapped with a half smile. The head of the goat turned from the ground and casted a spiked ball of ice, throwing it at Gabriel. In the blink of an eye, everything turned into slow motion. The ambience felt heavily saturated with aether, making his every move feel ethereal. His entire body felt immensely light, everything was silent, and he was able to see some birds stopped right in the air, their wings flapping so slow that it was almost imperceptible.

 

Below him he noticed a big magic seal made of multiple cogs and gears that spinned constantly, that would mean then that he was the one who slowed down time… But how? He never was able to do such a thing, he just wanted to save Gabriel so he wasn’t… Gabriel!

 

Jack threw himself to the king, tackling him to the ground and getting him out of the ice ball path. In no time everything regained its normal speed, the spiked ball of ice crashed against the wall of the cliff, the goat made more garbled noises and the chimera had to stop for a moment due to its wounds. Jack’s body felt instantly ill, every limb numb and heavy, his stomach felt upside down and the tips of his fingers and toes cold as ice, his forehead was cold as well, contrasting with the intense heat the king radiated from his body. He noticed Gabriel’s voice as a distant mumble, shaking him and asking what was wrong.

 

“It’s like if I was ill, I feel extremely weak and cold.” He didn’t notice how much he was shaking till he heard himself stutter. He heard Gabriel curse loudly and felt how he put his hand over his forehead.

 

“Seven Hells! You are suffering of mana sickness, how the hell did you stop time kid? You dried out yourself of aether and now your body is struggling.” The pained howl of the chimera stopped him from answering back.

 

“Oh no you won’t infernal beast!” He felt how his back leaned on the hard surface of Gabriel’s chest, both of them facing the chimera and the goat head. “Burst!” Insanely fast six thin lightning bolts formed a magic seal in the form of an hexagon and a giant pillar of blue lightning struck the head and the chimera, scorching their bodies and the area around them. In no time Jack had Gabriel over him asking him questions he barely could understand while he checked his vitals.

 

“Kid! Hey kid! Please answer me.” Jack barely had enough strength to be annoyed by being called a kid again, but he wanted to reassure the king he still was conscious.

 

“Please don’t be so loud, my head hurts.”

 

“I don’t care” Gabriel grabbed Jack’s right hand and looked firmly at his blue eyes making him yelp slightly and blush, “have you ever had pure aether transfused to you before?” Jack forced a nod and gave him a weak thumbs up to proceed with the transfusion. Right as Gabriel closed his eyes, a giant spike of crimson crystal fell from the sky making a loud noise, from the inside a black and red sludge started to pour, forming a big pool around it.

 

“¿Qué cojones?”

 

From the pool, chimeras of different bodies crawled to the surface, coated in the black and red sludge. They seemed a bit confused and slow to process what they were doing. Jack counted at least 20 of them.

 

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Jack felt how he was carefully placed on the ground, feeling the touch of Gabriel’s hand on his forehead.

 

“As the blood sun rises, the abyssal moon shall cry.” Gabe’s shadow raised from the ground, adopting the shape of a raven, his purple cloak banished to reform on Jack’s body. The shadow enveloped Gabriel, a pair of wings and a tail of feathers appeared, black as the night the color faded into white at the edge of the feathers, giving them a mesmerizing contrast with the king's brown skin. He also noticed how the other usual garments vanished, Gabriel now wore a tight black tank top and a long black skirt torn at the edge. He had to be hallucinating or something, cause he could see how Gabriel’s head was now covered in black flames.

 

His right hand moved quickly, slashing upwards in an open arc with Tyrfing. The sky tore itself and a rift opened. “Dark Force!” Gabriel’s usual soft voice turned now raspy and ethereal, before Jack could ask anything about what happened to the king, from the rift a flood of a dark liquid poured, flooding all the area around them. Jack feared he would drown but to his surprise it was smoke like darkness. Gabriel hit the ground with his fist, a dome of darkness formed and Jack found himself surrounded by the most intensive dark he ever felt and complete silence. But the silence was broken by the sound of numerous slashes tearing skin and muscle apart, the chimeras howled in pain and Jack could hear how their bodies fell to the ground. He felt how sudden sleep took over him, he tried to fight it, but to no avail he closed his eyes at the sound of a ragged breath and soft steps.

 

“Told you I’d save you kid” to the feeling of being lifted in strong arms, Jack fell into a deep slumber.

 

 

* * *

 

 

He was floating in an endless void, nothing he could feel besides the light air around him. He saw how the faint vision of a winged figure made of golden light gazed in his direction.

 

“The gears of change started to run oh Shepherd, be wary of those who desire your power out of ignorance and blind faith, sharp is the Talon and ready to strike.” The figure made a weird noise and dissipated, leaving Jack confused and a bit frightened of what just happened.

 

“I’ve done everything I could, he’ll be perfectly fine after sleeping a bit so relax and go finish the paperwork I left yesterday on your desk.” That was Rowland’s voice, but where was he?

 

“I don’t take orders from you, besides I already did it, I’m free to do whatever I want to do.” That was Gabriel’s, so that means that they were in Blackwatch’s castle.

 

“If you don’t need me anymore I’ll keep with my task at hand, boss, Rowland, have a nice day.”

 

“Not so fast coyote, remember your actual mission, I have enough pressure from the UN by sheltering the new shepherd, I don’t want the Shimada empire breathing down my neck cause you are messing around with their eldest son.” Gabriel’s voice sounded way more serious than during their encounter at the river.

 

“You worry too much boss, será pan comido!”

 

“Another thing Jesse! No es oro todo lo que reluce, no siempre sigue la sombra a la persona. You know what I mean right?”

 

“Claro como el agua jefe, I’ll call as soon as I find more.” The guy named Jesse sounded sad and weary at the same time, the sound of his voice died with the indication of a holo screen closing.

 

“I know we are in a delicate situation but aren’t you exaggerating a bit?” That was a woman, she sounded young and had a distinctive accent.

 

“Someone was able to deploy twenty five military mutated chimeras in our territory, I’m not exaggerating Sombra.” Gabriel released a tired sigh.

 

“Please tell me you found something about this attack or what the US government wanted to do with Jack.”

 

“Nothing at all, whoever made the chimeras was sure to leave no track at all, they just materialized out of thin air. Regarding Jack’s case, I’ll go with Rowland to the magic council so I can search better, all the politicians will be there and they’ll be an easy target.”

 

“Good, Rowland be sure that you contact Blanstyr and Sunnwys first, you’ll need an archaean and a polyglot or the South Korean president will try to trick you in the pact scheduled to take place during the council.”

 

“I know, the meeting point is already decided and they’ll be there in time, Sombra your status?”

 

“Already here enjoying the delicious Talisyan food, Gabe you have to learn how to cook this, está cojonudo!” Rowland laughed while Gabe released an exasperated sigh.

 

“Stick to the mission niña.” Gabriel said with a gruff tone.

 

“I know, I know, jeez one can’t relax a bit.”

 

“Yeah I’m sorry but since I can’t leave this goddamn castle I won’t allow you to enjoy Alisya that much.”

 

“Amargado.” The girl tried to say in a low voice.

 

“I heard you niña.”

 

“Augh, anything else? You are just annoying!” Gabriel laughed this time at the annoyance of the girl.

 

“Well as your father figure it’s my duty to annoy you every now and then.”

 

“You are not my father figure!”

 

“Yes I am, now go back to work and be sure to not bother Rowland too much during the council.”

 

“I’m not a bother!” The sound of another screen closing could be heard.

 

“What are you laughing at?”

 

“Oh you know, watching you three interact as a family is extremely amusing.”

 

“I just worry about them, now, if you ever-”

 

“‘Tell them you said you are worried I’ll disappear to not be found ever again’ I know your threat very well thank you.”

 

“Exactly, now go and do your politic business.”

 

“Sure thing your majesty” A door was closed.

 

“And don’t call me that!” If Rowland heard Gabriel’s scream, he didn’t reply back.

 

“I’ll tell you this, they are a really nice family, I cannot wait for you to meet them Jack.”

 

Wait did he call him Jack?

 

“And don’t worry, you are now safe, you are home.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you everyone for staying til the end!! I’d love to read your thoughts and any suggestion you might have about it! I won’t translate the spanish in this story for now since I want to keep it like that, but if people really wants to know what anything means you can ask me anytime! Next update will be with the continuation of this series, see you then!  
> NOTE: The picture shows the last part when Jack fall asleep again after everyone leaves the room and his own self creates a small butterfly, Gabe's aether react to this and creates several in response while he is asleep, it seems like their aethers shares a surprisingly strong affinity, I wonder what this might mean in the long run...


End file.
